MASHPEE — Stewards of the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge are fired up about bringing back the habitat of the threatened New England cottontail rabbit.

In late February, several groups — including the Orenda Wildlife Land Trust, which controls around 45 acres of the refuge's more than 5,000 acres — began a 10-year project of habitat restoration through prescribed burning.

"We're trying to help these rabbits stay off the endangered species list," Orenda administrator Liz Lewis said.

About 86 percent of the rabbit's natural New England habitat has been lost, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statistics.

A recent sample near the restoration area by an Eastern Massachusetts Wildlife Refuge Complex biologist found just 27 individual New England cottontails, according to Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Catherine Hibbard.

The burning also will bring back other species that prefer the same habitat as the cottontails, and help reduce the chance of forest fires in the area, Joel Carlson, owner of Northeast Forest and Fire Management, said. The company has the contract to work on the mechanical clearing and prescribed burns.

"It's being done in a way that's beneficial to a whole ecosystem," he said.

Around 100 years ago, the area was home to part of the sheep farm located on the Massachusetts Military Reservation and was mostly devoid of shrubs and trees, Carlson said.

Since then, though, dense shrubs and tall trees have moved in, clogging growth and blocking sunlight to the area where new growth could occur.

The rabbits like a habitat that offers protection, Lewis said, but when it becomes too dense it isn't habitable for them.

The habitat restoration project will first use machines to clear fire breaks and dense areas of the forest and then use fire to further clear the areas.

"It needs to be reset," Carlson said.

On a recent morning, the sound of chain saws split the air as several of Carlson's workers tore through thick areas of brush. In some areas, a machine already has completed a process called mastication, shredding trees into small splinters that will burn up later.

Project organizers hope burning will begin later in the spring, if weather permits. Then, the area's growth will be monitored and maintenance burns could happen over the next 10 years, with a goal of finding more cottontails in that time.

"And a dense cottontail population could be a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem overall," Carlson said.